Trumpeter to Present "Art of the Single Line"

11/19/08

Ithaca College trumpet professor Frank Gabriel Campos will present a free concert of music for trumpet alone on Monday, December 1, at 7:00 p.m. in Ithaca College's Hockett Family Recital Hall.

Titled "Art of the Single Line," the concert will include a wide variety of music from jazz to classical, including "Leyenda" by the Spanish composer Albeniz, "Spain" by jazz pianist Chick Corea, "Ashokan Farewell" from the Ken Burns Civil War miniseries, as well as music by Leonard Bernstein and Stevie Wonder. There will even be an unaccompanied version of "Flight of the Bumblebee."

Campos will be joined by Nicholas Walker, the School of Music's string bass teacher, later in the program. The two have collaborated extensively as a duo in previous concerts.

How will he play the pieces without an accompanist? "The idea behind the project," says Campos, "is to distill a piece to its essence. The trumpet plays only one note at a time -- but like a pen-and-ink drawing, the single line can suggest a great deal. It all depends on what you choose to play out of all of the possible notes. That is the art of it."

Campos says that a concert of this type is rare. "It is very difficult to play the trumpet for long periods without rest. The trumpet is not an oboe or a clarinet -- to do this kind of heavy playing requires marathon-like preparation." Campos says he has been practicing some of these pieces for many years. "I made a decision to master the 'Flight of the Bumblebee' when I was in junior high school. I will play it for the first time in public -- although I have played it for my students."

In the U.S., Campos says, hardly anyone listens to unaccompanied single-melody instruments, though this is found in other cultures. "Today everything is accompanied. I find it refreshing to focus on one strand of the whole, to explore subtleties of musical expression difficult to hear in an ensemble setting."

Campos compares single line music to calligraphy. "Among the greatest ancient art from Asia and the Middle East is calligraphy -- single-line art. With pen and ink, we admire the graduations of tone color, the shape of the gesture, the direct expression of subtlety and beauty. It is the same in music."

0 Comments

https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20081119102120373